Cable Show 2012: SeaChange Targets Tablet Ads Based On Web-Browsing History

5/16/2012 11:29 AM Eastern

By: Todd Spangler

SeaChange International and Tellabs have teamed up on a solution that can deliver ads dynamically in a video stream delivered to an iPad based on a subscriber's Web-browser viewing history.

The duo plan to demo the addressable advertising system, based on SeaChange's Infusion advanced-ad platform, next week at the 2012 Cable Show in Boston. The new Tellabs technology enables ad-placement decisions based on users' interest categories, as extrapolated from the websites they've visited, although the companies emphasized that the data is completely anonymized.

"People are watching TV but also browsing the Internet, and what we wanted to do is leverage that and deliver some targeted ads to those devices," SeaChange CEO Raghu Rau said in an interview. "We can capture the browsing history of the person, then the ad-decision server searches for the category... to target an ad well-suited to the person watching it in the household."

Rau said there aren't any privacy issues because the data used for targeting is not personally identifiable, in the same way Google targets ads based on user behaviors.

SeaChange's Infusion advertising system can handle up to 150,000 insertable channels and millions of ad assets. The platform is compatible with SCTE 130 and IAB VAST specifications, allowing operators to use different external ad-servicing systems, such as This Technology's placement opportunity information service, for dynamic placement decisions.

"SeaChange is aggressively pursuing new modes of multi-screen monetization, especially addressability, so that our video service provider customers can enhance the business of television on every device," SeaChange general manager of advertising Aseem Bakshi said in a statement. "Our open Infusion platform is providing the flexibility to do this very rapidly and do it first, as our demonstration with a mobile segment leader like Tellabs shows."